New Clinton Strategy Doubles Down on Mocking Trump

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Making fun of Donald Trump’s erratic pronouncements on foreign policy worked so well for Hillary Clinton earlier this month that she was poised to repeat the process Tuesday, only this time focusing on his economic policy.

As she did in her foreign policy speech, Clinton is taking aim at Trump’s ego as much as his policy statements and trying, as she has done in the past, to goad the billionaire former reality television star into one of his regular overreactions with their predictably damaging side effects.

The strategy was made abundantly clear with the launch of a new website Tuesday, called “The Art of the Steal,” playing off the title of Trump’s bestselling business book, The Art of the Deal. The site mocks Trump’s failures in the business world, blasts him for his treatment of workers, contractors and investors. And perhaps most stinging, repeats and amplifies an Associated Press finding that if Trump had simply liquidated the assets he inherited from his father and put them in an index fund, he would have far more money than he claims to have today.

“Want to know how to increase your wealth faster than Donald Trump?” the site asks. “Throw your money in a Vanguard account…and leave it. According to the Associated Press, Donald Trump’s wealth has grown 300% since 1987. And really, good for him. That’s great. Except the S&P 500--an index of the top 500 publicly traded companies has grown 1336% in that same time period.”

The site, which relies heavily on reporting done by mainstream news organizations like TheWashington Post and TheNew York Times, quotes former investors who have accused Trump of “pillaging” companies for his own gain while letting shareholders suffer catastrophic losses, bondholders who lost confidence in his ability to manage his companies, and small businesses that wound up facing bankruptcy after Trump refused to pay his bills.

It also spends quite a bit of time insinuating that without multiple bailouts from his father, including one episode that the New Jersey Gaming Commission determined to be an instance of an illegal undisclosed loan, Trump would never have survived in the business world he claims to have mastered.

While there is no guarantee that Trump will react by lashing out, as he’s done in the past, his campaign announced a hastily-planned event Wednesday afternoon at which he will deliver “a speech regarding the election.”

On Twitter, Trump made it clear what the speech will really be about.

I will be making a big speech tomorrow to discuss the failed policies and bad judgment of Crooked Hillary Clinton.

A longtime reporter on the intersection of the federal government and the private sector, Rob Garver served as a National Correspondent, based in Washington, D.C., for four years. He has written for ProPublica, The New York Times and other publications.